SCAM ALERT: Macropay and HowToPay Scam Partners

Posted by FinanceBrokerage on January 16th, 2020

Scammers are becoming smarter every day. Unfortunately, modern technologies help criminals a lot, as they create more sophisticated ways to scam people.

According to the information received from reliable sources and further investigation conducted by us Finance Brokerage Research team has recently discovered a new scam company. It turned out that the CEO and Owner of HowToPay LTD, Cameron McKean, was the main villain in an alleged illegal activity, including fraud, performed by him and another company called MacroPay.

HowToPay, as it states on its website, provides “secure” payment and billing solutions. It has been active in the business market ever since 2002. The company manages its Servers and Global PCI Compliant software and solutions.

MacroPay and HowToPay are connected by a mutual contract, where HowToPay is Macropay’s service provider.  The latter provides payment services for international merchants. HowToPay is the executive arm of MacroPay, dealing with the accounts and the money.

 Additional Details on the Scam Suspects

As the investigation went further, we tried to find more information on the managers and CEOs of the company.  We were able to find some social media profiles of the mentioned people and compare them to the information given on the official business websites. For example, we were able to find Cameron McKean on LinkedIn.

His LinkedIn profile states that he has received Young Direct Marketer of the year award in Australia. It also says that he is the Founder of HowToPay and has been working in the company for 17 years already, since 2002.

He is also the founder of the FreedomBank. However, we were not able to find the mentioned bank anywhere on LinkedIn, and Cameron has not said it on his LinkedIn profile either.

Also, there is a mistake in the HowToPay foundation dates, which do not make sense; if the company’s team is professional, why would they mix up the years? This may not be a big deal; however, it does not look right.

Also, we were able to find Adam J Clarke’s LinkedIn profile.

As stated on the FreedomBank’s website, he is the new client and merchant manager. However, on his LinkedIn profile, we discovered that he is the CEO and Founder of MacroPay. Also, his company is involved in client fund disappearance. So, we probed even further.

MacroPay’s LinkedIn account seems to be as inactive as its Twitter. The company’s Twitter account usually tweets about re-posting music videos on YouTube.

Unfortunately, MacroPay’s Linkedin account has no posts at all.

If a company is honest and successful, why wouldn’t it post anything on its social media, or talk with its clients, or even be more open? It is impossible to find any international documentation of any relevant regulation system on MacroPay or even HowToPay.

This all seems to be very suspicious.

The Scam Accusations

It was recently discovered that one of the HowToPay’s client’s tremendous amount of money, approximately 100 000 USD, disappeared. The incident took place after closed the account for unknown reasons.  This occurred while Mr. McKean served as the company’s CEO.

After the allegations, the company denied any connections to the incident. HowToPay renounced responsibility claiming they are a separate company stating that MacroPay were the ones in charge. Also, MacroPay provided the client with the contract and, thus, was responsible for the client’s funds.

However, both companies are lying.  Mr. McKean has either fraudulently misapplied or is wrongfully withholding his clients’ Account Funds, with no intention to give it back.

Suspicious Activity and Connections between MacroPay, HowToPay and Freedom Bank

First of all, HowToPay and MacroPay presented themselves as separate companies. Even though they are not. HowToPay is MacroPay’s service provider. Moreover, both companies have mutual contracts.

However, after the money disappearance incident, Cameron McKean has blamed MacroPay. The HowToPay CEO claimed that it is the second part of the contract when there is no contract signed with HowToPay. Thus, the company has nothing to do with the client’s fund money.

Besides, we were able to find other connections between these two companies. Cameron McKean, the founder and CEO of HowToPay, and Adam Clarke, the founder, and CEO of MacroPay, are partners in another business platform called “Freedom Bank.”

As we’ve found out, Freedom Bank formed from several leading global payment and billing processors to provide more effective and robust payment solutions. The website states that the Freedom Bank is exclusively for business clients and their online payments.  Well, the founders should defiantly, google the scam meaning, because whatever they are doing, it sure looks like a scam to us.

The bank is located in Australia.  The address is Level 6, 162 Goulburn Street, East Sydney. NSW 2010, Australia.  It may seem surprising, but the address registered on the Freedom Bank website is the same as HowToPay. Also, McKean is the Chief Executive Officer & the Founder of Freedom Bank, while Clarke is the new Client and Merchant manager.

Thus, in conclusion, we can say that McKean and Clarke are close partners. They are managing together a company from the same business field they’ve created together. This is quite comical, as HowToPay transfers responsibility to MacroPay, claiming there is no legal connection between the companies when the owners are such close partners.

Stay tuned, as we’ll continue our investigation and try to elaborate more evidence and information about these scammers.

Scam Calls, Lies, Tricks and How to Protect Yourself

Here, we’ll try to explain how you can protect yourself by spotting the warning signs of scams and other suspicious activities. There are a lot of ways that scammers can trick you. Unfortunately, modern technologies not only broaden the horizons for surprising discoveries, but criminals can use them.

However, there are some characteristics that you should pay attention to when you’re purchasing a product on the internet. Here is a brief list of all of them.

1. The suspicious companies claim they are professionals – Usually, Scammers will say they are approved or associated with another reputable organization or government agency.
2. Fake social media profiles – Scammers’ numbers grow each year. They like to craft beautiful portfolios to create an illusion of security and integrity for the naive customers. They also produce a fake account and can send you friend requests, that you should not respond!  If you will, they then send you offers to make quick money or invest or ask for money to help them with the trouble they are having. So, DO NOT interact with them.
3. Fake websites and emails – Many scammers create professional-looking websites to prove that they are not scamming. However, they can unintentionally reveal themselves by pressuring you into making a decision that you may not want to make. Be SMARTER than them as they are working to a carefully crafted script.

Finally, always do your research! Don’t rely on the information the suspicious companies give you in emails or over the phone – find this information separately. This is very important, before buying anything, read google reviews, search for legal documentations, look through articles, and analyze the material you’ve found. Be a smart buyer!